Published 3:40 pm, Wednesday, August 16, 2006

HUNTSVILLE, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 16, 2006--Mitcham Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIND) reported today that as part of its ongoing expansion plans it has acquired a 720-channel, 9,000-meter Sercel Seal system for its lease pool of marine seismic equipment. The exportable marine streamer system has already been leased by a major geophysical contractor and will immediately be deployed.

Sercel's Seal System is generally believed to be the geophysical contracting industry's system of choice for marine-towed arrays. Flexible architecture, reduced power consumption and fully distributed electronics enables the system to be tailored to the changing demands of sophisticated and complex marine surveys.

"Mitcham Industries is known for its long-standing commitment to providing the geophysical contracting industry with state-of-the-art seismic equipment," said Billy F. Mitcham, Jr., Mitcham Industries' President & CEO. "While we already have digital streamer technology in our rental fleet, acquisition of this first Sercel Seal system is our latest step toward expanding our deepwater marine capabilities."

"With the addition of the Seal system we now are able to offer our customers long offset streamer systems as a complete package, or to enhance the Seal Systems they already have onboard their vessels to acquire both 2D and 3D data," commented Guy Malden, Vice President, Marine Systems. "Also, as this Seal system is fully exportable, we can deliver it to our customers for deployment anywhere in the world without the delays typically associated with acquiring an export license."

Mitcham Industries, Inc., a geophysical equipment supplier, offers for lease or sale, new and "experienced" seismic equipment to the oil and gas industry, seismic contractors, environmental agencies, government agencies and universities. Headquartered in Texas, with sales and services offices in Calgary, Canada; Brisbane, Australia; Singapore; Ufa, Bashkortostan, Russia; and the United Kingdom and with associates throughout Europe, South America and Asia, Mitcham conducts operations on a global scale and is the largest independent exploration equipment lessor in the industry.

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts included herein, including statements regarding potential future demand for the Company's products and services, business strategy and other plans and objectives for future operations, are forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the inherent volatility of oil and gas prices and the related volatility of demand for the Company's services; loss of significant customers; significant defaults by customers on amounts due to the Company; international economic and political instability; dependence upon additional lease contracts; the risk of technological obsolescence of the Company's lease fleet; vulnerability of seismic activity and demand to weather conditions and seasonality of operating results; dependence upon few suppliers; and other factors that are disclosed in the Company's 2006 Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other Securities and Exchange Commission filings and available from the Company without charge. All information in this release is as of the date of this release and the Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company's expectations.